Races are set predominantly at night or against an overcast, darkened sky in order to show off the game’s superb use of lighting effects. All the weapons are standard fair, so the bolt power-up will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s used Mario Kart’s three green shells, whilst the mine is likewise comparable to the aforementioned game’s banana skins and so on. But rather than representing these power-ups as physical objects they all take the form of abstract shapes made out of shining, coloured light. The homing missile is a giant, red ball that snakes its way slowly round the track, the bolt’s projectiles are glowing daggers of pink and the speed boost wreathes the car in an effervescent, green hue. It makes for a sometimes mesmerising game, as power-ups are blasted all over the track, cars flying up into the air and spinning around before landing back down. The environments are also nicely varied, with a good use of mood lighting and some swanky track-logos emblazoned across building façades. The cars themselves are bright, robed in brash colours with glossy, reflective surfaces glinting in the carnage. It’s the racing game equivalent of visiting the funfair, with noise and bright colours everywhere you look.
In terms of negotiating the track, the driving mechanics aren’t that challenging; however, it’s through the use of Blur’s power-ups that the game demands more from the player, be it lining up shots on the competition or dodging their incoming attacks. It makes for a game much more based around immediate reflexes rather than practicing and rehearsing specific driving lines. This is complemented by the fantastic decision to grant players three weapon slots for storing their pickups. As a result players don’t just grab a weapon and fire it off straight away, the goal is to select specific items from the track and then use them in combination. Say you have a homing rocket available, once it locks on to the player ahead they’ll be given a warning and due to the weapon’s slow speed they’ll have ample opportunity to engage one of the game’s various defensive counter-measures. Save the rocket for later however, perhaps mixing it with either a second homing missile or a bolt power-up and you‘ll have a much greater chance of landing a hit on the opposition.
It’s this careful planning and the ability for most weapons to be used in either an attacking or defensive role, dependent on the need at the time, that gives the game its depth and satisfaction. Items such as the mine, bolt or homing rocket can all be fired forward or backwards, with varying degrees of effectiveness, and the game features a rear-view mirror, visible even in third-person view, to make this possible. This setup leads to a compelling mix of skillful driving – firing a mine forwards requires careful judgment of speed and distance – and tactical planning, balancing the various shortcuts with the item offerings of the longer routes.
While the weapons map to fairly standard roles for anyone familiar with Mario Kart, WipEout or similar titles, there is one worthy of special mention: the shock power-up. This fills the criteria for a weapon used by players near the back half of the pack to slow down one or more of the race leaders. When used, it triggers three lightning bolts that arc down onto the track, each setting up an area which, should any car enter, will temporarily shutdown all their electronics whilst also dealing a significant amount of damage. It is not a guaranteed hit, though; it’s possible to dodge and weave between these blasts and, should an unwise aggressor trigger the Shock whilst the leader is on a wide, open straight then it will be completely wasted. What this means is that unlike the blue shells in Mario Kart, every weapon in Blur requires skill and careful thought to utilise it effectively and, conversely, every weapon in the game can be countered by an intelligent player or dodged by a skillful one. All in all this makes for some very taut and tense battles between racers of comparable skill levels.
The single-player game features various race types including standard races, time trials and destruction-orientated events. One nice feature the developers have added to extend the longevity of the game is a set of fan targets, one for each event. Players can build up their fan count by completing set challenges dotted around the race track and by proving themselves through showy driving, much like the Kudos system used in the PGR games. There’s a rather simple combo mechanic to master, building up a full set of weapons and triggering them in sequence whilst drifting, overtaking and picking up more items keeps ramping the fan count ever higher and will quickly see players reaching the target scores. It adds a little more to complete besides simply beating the races and, when mixed with the specific challenges required to unlock boss races, results in a surprisingly comprehensive solo experience. There’s even the option to set a friend as a rival and the two of you will get your own personalised leaderboards for every campaign race.
It’s in the multiplayer environment where Blur really shines, though. Amazingly, the developers have included a four-player split-screen mode, complete with AI drivers rounding the field up to eight racers in total, with no pop-in or frame-rate issues. The only downside is the loss of the rear-view mirrors, which makes firing weapons backward and dodging incoming attacks a lot harder. To produce a game with this calibre of visuals that can also be rendered four times over is a technical accomplishment that Bizarre should be very proud of.
The online play is an absolute blast, the core mechanics make for an excellent, competitive experience. The framework has its niggles, as you play you earn experience points which unlock new mod customisations for your car and unfortunately these aren’t that well balanced, even featuring some mods whose only purpose is to stop other specific ones from working. The ten-player Skirmish playlist is by far the best way to play Blur, all the others cap the player limit at twenty and are frankly so chaotic that much of the skill is removed from play. The one exception to this rule is the team-based racing, which splits the players into two teams with points awarded to the full field of drivers. This means that even if you’re in sixteenth place, as long as you’re in front of at least one enemy driver, you are playing an important role.
The ten-player matches are far more compelling and suit the tracks to a tee. With this number of players, the random elements mostly fall to the wayside. That’s not to say there isn’t any luck involved as should you find yourself in a game with a couple of racers more concerned with gaining a single position in the final standings than ensuring the leaders don’t break away from the pack, thereby forcing you to waste all your items on defence, and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. But even then it’s usually clear what’s gone on to everyone involved and for the most part if you’re good you’ll get that podium position. Regardless of winning, there’s nothing more enjoyable than getting into a grudge fight with one of your friends, desperately clawing at each other the whole way round as you battle for domination.
Overall, Blur is something very special – it’s addictive, tight and ultra-competitive. The developers have taken the party/combat-style racer and stripped out as much of the luck-based elements as they can, leaving behind a fast-paced, tightly focused game of white hot thrills. It’s the kind of title that has you and your friends laughing and screaming at each other for hours on end and it never really gets old. Ultimately you’ll be hard pushed to find a better game for larking about in cars with your buddies and it also works surprisingly well as a single-player experience thanks to some slick presentation and the nice range of challenges on offer. The Mario Kart franchise finally has some worthy competition.